French embedded virtualization firm Trango Virtual Processors is demonstrating a version of its virtualization technology that supports the Texas Instruments OMAP3 line of system-on-chip (SoC) processors. The Linux-ready Trango Hypervisor is being demo'd on the mobile-phone targeted OMAP3430 at Expo Comm Wireless Japan this week.

Specifically, Trango is demonstrating the Cortex-A8-based OMAP3430 running Linux, Windows CE 6.0, and the uITron real-time operations system (RTOS) “simultaneously and securely,” says the company. Running the hypervisor on the OMAP3 platform will enable OEMs to “reduce or even eliminate driver changes in moving from one OS platform to another OS platform, with a positive impact on the resultant development and validation effort,” says Trango.

Trango Hypervisor on an ARM11 platform
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Other more recent OMAP3 processors include the mobile-phone oriented OMAP3440, which adds HD video support to the OMAP3430 design. There's also a similar OMAP35xx line, which comes in four versions supporting a variety of consumer electronics equipment. All three OMAP3 processor lines are based on the ARM Cortex-A8 core. Trango has previously announced that it will also support ARM's Cortex-A9 core, which adds multi-core support.

OMAP3430 architecture
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Trango Hypervisor comprises a 20KB microkernel capable of hosting two or more guest OSes per processor core. Because Trango Hypervisor runs the guest OSes in CPU user mode, rather than protected mode, it offers improved security compared to other virtualization products, says the company. Another touted advantage is license separation; the guest OSes run in separate partitions, allowing proprietary code and open source software to coexist on the same processor. Supported architectures include ARM, PPC, and MIPS, while supported OSes include Linux, Windows CE, and a variety of commercial and home-grown RTOSes.

Stated Trango COO Pierre Coulombeau, “Our product allows developers to eliminate porting costs associated with peripheral drivers and makes rich OS porting extremely fast.”

Availability

Trango did not provide availability information on the Trango Hypervisor for TI's OMAP3, but will be demonstrating the product this week at Expo Comm Wireless Japan.

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